Administrative states as moral hazards: four dimensions

Abstract

This article explores four fundamental dimensions of how administrative states present moral hazards that reach deeply into the distortion of governmental structures, institutions and processes. These dimensions are (1) the undermining of governmental structural integrity, (2) displacement of political and regime values, (3) the promotion of amoral administrative thought, and (4) bureaucratic dysfunction and ossification. Although these dimensions are neither exhaustive nor mutually exclusive, they are substantial and have been under appreciated and analyzed in public administration’s academic literature. The article concludes with five strategies for reducing such moral hazards. Although I illustrate with the United States, the moral hazards considered are not confined to it and are a feature of administrative states generally.

Keywords:

• Administrative states
• moral hazards
• values
• administrative thought
• ossification

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Hale, “What's so Moral about the Moral Hazard?,” 1

2 Jacobi, The Bureaucratization of the World.

3 Garrett, et al., “Assessing the Costs of Bureaucracy.”

4 Waldo, The Administrative State.

5 American Society for Public Administration, “ASPA's Mission”; National Academy of Public Administration.

6 Perry, “Measuring Public Service Motivation.”

7 Goodsell, The Case for Bureaucracy.

8 Adams and Balfour, Unmasking Administrative Evil.

9 Hummel, The Bureaucratic Experience.

10 Simmons and Dvorin, Public Administration.

11 O'Leary, The Ethics of Dissent; Heidenheimer and Johnson, Political Corruption.

12 Hale, “What's so Moral about the Moral Hazard?”; Heidenheimer and Johnson, Political Corruption.

13 Johnson, “The Political Consequences of Corruption.”

14 Barker, The Development of Public Services, 1–38.

15 Swart, Sale of Offices in the Seventeenth Century; Rosenbloom, Federal Service and the Constitution, Chapter 1.

16 Weber, From Max Weber, Chapter 8.

17 Ibid.

18 Federal Trade Commission v. Ruberoid Co., 343 U.S. 470, 488 (dissent).

19 Madison. The Federalist No. 51.

20 Rosenbloom, Building a Legislative-Centered Public Administration; Rosenbloom, Administrative Law for Public Managers, Chapter 7.

21 Fiorina, Congress.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid., 48.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid., 49

26 Rosenbloom, Building a Legislative-Centered Public Administration, Chapter 3.

27 Garrett, “Assessing the Costs of Bureaucracy-Bashing from Electoral Campaigns.”

28 Rosenbloom, Building a Legislative-Centered Public Administration, 23.

29 Ibid., 127–130; Hibbing, Congressional Careers.

30 Fiorina, Congress, 49.

31 Article II, Section 3.

32 Lowande and Gray, “Public Perception of the Presidential Toolkit.”

33 Rosenbloom, review of “Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic.”

34 Kendall v United States, 37 U.S. 524.

35 The President's Committee on Administrative Management; Gore, From Red Tape to Results.

36 Rosenbloom, “Phantoms.”

37 Industrial Union Department, AFL-CIO v. American Petroleum Institute, 448 U.S. 607. The Supreme Court may intervene when “major questions” of “economic and political significance” are involved. See Biden v. Nebraska, No. 22-506, 21.

38 J. W. Hampton, Jr. & Co. v. United States, 276 U.S. 394.

39 Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. 467 U.S. 837.

40 Auer v. Robbins, 519 U.S. 452.

41 City of Arlington, Texas v. Federal Communications Commission, 569 U.S. 290.

42 Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137.

43 City of Arlington, Texas, 301.

44 Heckler v. Chaney, 470 U.S. 821.

45 Article I, section 1.

46 Rosenbloom, Administrative Law for Public Managers, 72–73.

47 Harrison, “The Unitary Executive and the Scope of Executive Power.”

48 Rohr, Ethics for Bureaucrats.

49 European Union, “Aims and Values.”

50 China Daily, “Core Socialist Values.”

51 Ibid., Based on the 2017 National Congress.

52 United Nations Organization, “Sustainable Development Goals,” Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

53 Government of Canada: “Values and Ethics Code for the Public Sector.”

54 U.S. Department of Energy, “Ethics—Fourteen Principles of Ethical Conduct for Federal Employees.” This is largely a one-size-fits-all code for federal departments and agencies.

55 Weber, From Max Weber, 216.

56 Thompson, Without Sympathy or Enthusiasm.

57 See Hummel, The Bureaucratic Experience.

58 Sharp, “Red Tape as a Social Problem.”

59 Merton, “Bureaucratic Structure and Personality.”

60 Gulick, “Notes on the Theory of Organization,” 87.

61 Gulick, “Science, Values and Public Administration,” 192–193.

62 United Nations, “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” See also Taylor v. Riojas, 141 S.Ct. 52.

63 Goffman, Asylums, 78–79. See also Wyatt v. Stickney, 325 F.Supp. 781.

64 Jordan v. Gardner, 986 F.2d 1521, 1544.

65 Ibid.

66 SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center), “Family Separation—A Timeline”; National Public Radio, “What We Know: Family Separation and 'Zero Tolerance' at the Border.”

67 National Public Radio; ibid.

68 Svara and Brunet, “Social Equity is a Pillar of Public Administration.” However, efforts to achieve social equity based on racial classifications may be unconstitutional. See Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, No. 20-1199.

69 For instance, whether economy should trump efficiency may depend on scale to which equipment and facility spaces are used. See Rosenbloom, “Beyond Efficiency: Value Frameworks for Public Administration.”

70 See Lee, “Colluding to Create the American Society for Public Administration and the Consequent Collateral Damage,” 6 for Dimock's position; see Waldo, 193.

71 Simmons and Dvorin, Public Administration, 217.

72 An example is the above-mentioned instructions mandating that male prison guards “must 'push inward and upward when searching the crotch and upper thighs of the [female] inmate'”. . . making sure that “[a]ll seams in the leg and crotch area are . . . 'squeez[ed] and knead[ed].'” The guards were also instructed to “search the breast area in a sweeping motion, so that the breasts will be 'flattened.'” Jordan v. Gardner, 1544.

73 Rosenbloom, “Attending to Mission Extrinsic Public Values in Performance Oriented Administrative Management.”

74 Rosenbloom, Administrative Law, 87–89.

75 The average cost of environmental impact statements is estimated to be $250,000 to $2 million. Gokec Capital.

76 Cohen, March, and Olson, “A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice.”

77 Rittel and Webber, “Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning.”

78 United States Government Manual.

79 Ibid.

80 Cal State Fullerton: Government Documents: The United States.

81 The President's Committee on Administrative Management, 32.

82 Light, Thickening Government.

83 Davis, Discretionary Justice.

84 Rosenbloom, et al. “Madison's Ratchet.”

85 Pérez, “Red Tape Literature in Public Administration.”

86 McGarity, “The Human Cost of Regulatory Ossification.”

87 United States v. Nova Scotia Food Products Corp. 568 F.2d 240. Rosenbloom, Administrative Law, 71–72, 84–86.

88 Executive Order 13,563; Rosenbloom et al. “Madison's Ratchet,” 78.

89 White House, “Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies”; Rosenbloom et al. “Madison's Ratchet,” 78.

90 Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, 140 S.Ct. 1891.

91 Biden v. Nebraska.

92 See Reed, “What Critics Get Wrong—and Right—about the Supreme Court's New 'Major Questions Doctrine.”

93 Rosenbloom, Administrative Law, 80–81

94 Rosenbloom, Building a Legislative-Centered Public Administration, Chapter 2.

95 American Society for Public Administration, “ASPA's Mission.”

96 Lasswell, Politics.

97 Rosenbloom, “Reinventing Reform Prescriptions.”

98 Rosenbloom, Building a Legislative-Centered Public Administration, Chapters 1 and 2.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David H. Rosenbloom

David H. Rosenbloom served as Professor of Public Administration in the School of Public Administration and Policy at Renmin University of China (2016–2019). He is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Public Administration at the School of Public Affairs at American University (Washington, DC) and editor-in-chief of the Routledge book Series in Public Administration and Public Policy.